Well, this frankly is a bizarre topic.

As someone who has played Civ I-IV, I can tell you quite simply, they are not overtly formulaic. The things you have to do to win a game of Civ 1 is very different from winning a game of Civ IV. Also, SMAC/X and COL are not comparable either.

Civ III for example due to the growth mechanics encourages popcorn strategics to place cities whenever you have the opportunity to do so.

Civ IV is the first one where your actual work area grows (significantly) with your city borders, encouraging high culture plays.

SMAC/X has the planet attack you if you pollute too much, so keeping that in mind is always key, unless you are the Gaians or Cult of Planet.

Well, that`s not true!
All the Civilization games are won by being the first one who brings people to Alpha Centauri. So, since the beginning, it`s always the same game, only with nicer graphics and some different techs to research.

Is that the famed make-up simulator I keep hearing about? =P

Sorry about that mistake.

Well, no. There are many victories, with additions to each game, such as Culture, Diplomatic, Domination, or Peace.

What are you talking bout? You`re not talking bout Civilization! There`s only one way to win: By bringing people to Alpha Centauri!!

What if I'm paying a faction where research isn't exactly prioritized?

Yeah, I also see red everytime someone makes that mistake.

I don`t care whom you pay money, that doesn`t change a single thing:
There`s still only one way to win the Civ games! :-)

There were similar complaints like that when GTA IV came out.It was said that a lot of the NPC programming and other aspects were a hold over from previous games stuck onto the new graphics engine.

LOL once again in this thread I don't know if the author of the comment is being serious or not, but for the benefit of those few (anyone?) who don't know Civilization games, there are actually several ways to win the game.

Of course going to Alpha Centauri is the method which undeniably at any point gives victory to whoever achieves that.

However, in most of my playthroughs I haven't even gotten to a phase where the interstellar ship is being built. In theory you can win the game without making a single discovery, simply by conquering the world as early as possible. In reality, you need to make some advances, but at least on easier difficulty levels still be able to conquer the world without too much resistance.

I have never managed to win the original game without being involved in any wars at all, so I don't know if that's actually possible, but presumably that possibility exists. Although the first Civilization is a great game, it's not really well balanced. Sometimes the AI seems to want to start wars "just because", and what makes it even more random is that sometimes units which are thousands of years behind in technology can win armored tanks or something. But since it's a great game, we can forgive&forget that.

I own Amiga&PC version big boxes with manuals and everything, so those are very good "coffee table games" too!!

It's a lot harder, time consuming and more expensive to create something original from scratch. And that would result in less profits for publishers and devs... And it's risky for publishers and devs as well because they don't really know if something truly new will be appealing to most gamers.

I have been reading a lot of complains from people how civilization games behavior are very different than one an other.
Especially for Civ6.

I've come through a time warp, in that I've played 1000s of hours or Civ 1 and Civ 2 and have only recently started Civ 5. And I'll say even though I haven't played that much, that it's pretty much the same game with extra bells and whistles. And I dislike that you can't stack units on a square and I'm not even sure that's even realistic. You can't have a couple of units in a square as big as a whole city? Really?

I will say in a way making it more complicated adds something but also takes away the simplicity.

Because of the terrible balancing, I learned soon not to go to war in a Civ game. I had to pay money in Civ 1, but I never had ANY war in it. :-D